Calling method for node across zones in ip network system

ABSTRACT

The invention discloses a calling method for endpoint across zones in IP network system. The method implements, simply and conveniently, endpoint addressing and calling across GK zones. The method includes: pre-registering an E.164 alias of every endpoint of each gatekeeper (GK) to its own GK in IP network system, wherein the E.164 alias being consisted of a unique zone prefix in the IP network system and a unique number of said endpoint in its own GK; a calling endpoint directly calling a called endpoint with the E.164 alias of the called endpoint. The method further includes: the calling GK extracting the prefix from E.164 alias of the called endpoint and asking the called GK to translate IP address of the called endpoint; the called GK translating IP address of the called endpoint and returning to the calling GK; the calling GK informing said calling endpoint about IP address of said called endpoint; the calling endpoint sending setup signaling to said called endpoint according to the translate IP address to initiate a call.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

[0001] The invention relates generally to an IP network technology, morespecifically to a method that makes a call crossing zones in an IPnetwork system. It is a technology about setting a unique IP alias forall H.323 endpoints on the IP network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The H.323 protocol was mainly used in multimedia conferencesystem, and now is popularly used in telephony over IP. An H.323 systemoffers multimedia communication service for a packet network. The packetnetwork includes local area networks (LAN), enterprise networks andmetropolitan-area networks etc., which does not provide guaranteedQuality of Service. The H.323 system is consisted of terminals,gateways, Multipoint Control Units (MCU) and Gatekeepers (GK) etc. AnH.323 endpoint is consisted of a terminal, Gateway, or MCU. The H.323endpoint makes a register at its own GK and serviced by the GK.

[0003] In the H.323 systems, one of the main services provided by the GKis address resolution, which includes translating an endpoint alias intoIP address of the endpoint. The endpoint alias includes E.164 telephonenumber, H.323ID, URL and EMAIL etc., and these aliases are registered tothe GK through the Registration Request (RRQ) signaling of the H.225Registration, Admission and Status (RAS) protocol from the endpoint. Inan H.323 system there may be many GK zones. Every GK zone includes oneor several GK and a collection of endpoints, and each endpoint makes theregister at its own GK respectively.

[0004] In present standard protocol, each endpoint alias in a GK zonemust be unique, but endpoint aliases at different GK zones do not havethis limitation. Thus, it is possible that different endpoints atdifferent GK zones may have same alias. This will have calling andaddressing difficulties for an endpoint across GK zones.

[0005]FIG. 1 shows an H.323 system networking with two GK zones: Zone 1managed by GK1 and Zone 2 managed by GK2, and there are repetitiveendpoint aliases between these two zones. At Zone 1, there are threeendpoints with aliases 123456, 123123 and 123789, respectively. At Zone2, there are also three endpoints with the same aliases: 123456, 123123and 123789, respectively. In this case, the IP addresses of endpoints inthe same zone can be obtained each other by address resolution serviceof the GK where the endpoint is located, but among endpoints indifferent zone, there is no way to translate the IP addresses ofendpoints with same aliases.

[0006] For example, suppose endpoint 123456 of Zone 1 originates a callto endpoint 123123 of Zone 2, GK1 only can translate the called endpoint123123 into an IP address in Zone 1 and return the IP address to thecalling endpoint 123456, but can not translate IP address of the calledendpoint alias 123123 in Zone 2 and return to the calling endpoint alias123456.

[0007] Advantage of the above configuring method for an endpoint aliasis that there is no limitation for naming every endpoint alias in eachGK zone. Nevertheless, since there is no identical configuring methodfor aliases among H.323 systems, a GK only can translate IP addresses ofendpoints in domestic zone but other zones. This cause is that no atechnique to guarantee a unique alias of every endpoint in a wholenetwork.

[0008] At present, along with development of video communication on IPnetwork and increase of endpoint in IP network system, it gets more andmore outstanding for the unique IP alias of endpoint.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Objective of the invention is to design a calling method forendpoint across zones in IP network system. With an identical endpointalias naming, all endpoint aliases is unique in the network system sothat a call and addressing across zones among any endpoints in differentGK zone can be implemented conveniently on IP network.

[0010] Technical scheme of the invention is as follow: a calling methodfor endpoint across zones in IP network system, it is characterized thatthe method includes the following steps:

[0011] A. pre-registering an E.164 alias of every endpoint of eachgatekeeper (GK) to its own GK in IP network system, wherein the E.164alias being consisted of a unique zone prefix in IP network system and aunique number of said endpoint in its own GK;

[0012] B. a calling endpoint directly calling a called endpoint with theE.164 alias of the called endpoint.

[0013] Said Step B further includes the following:

[0014] a. a GK of said calling endpoint having received an ARQ(Admission Request) signaling from said calling endpoint;

[0015] b. the GK of said calling endpoint extracting a prefix in theE.164 alias of the called endpoint and searching an IP address of a GKof said called endpoint that corresponds to the prefix, and thenaccording to the IP address, sending a LQR signaling to the GK of saidcalled endpoint to ask for translating IP address of the calledendpoint;

[0016] c. the GK of said called endpoint translating IP address of thecalled endpoint according to E.164 alias of the called endpoint andresponding to the GK of said calling endpoint by a LCF signaling;

[0017] d. the GK of said calling endpoint informing said callingendpoint about IP address of said called endpoint by an ACF signaling;

[0018] f. the calling endpoint sending a Q.931 calling setup signalingto said called endpoint according to the IP address of said calledendpoint, and initiating a call.

[0019] The invention needs to define every GK zone in IP network systemwith a unique number to form the prefix of a endpoint alias, and formsan endpoint number of the endpoint alias by means of a unique number ofeach endpoint within every GK zone; and then makes “said prefix for GKzone+endpoint number” to form a pre-defined (pre-registered) E.164 aliasof an endpoint.

[0020] Compare with the present technology, the invention solves theproblem about uniqueness of a endpoint alias on a whole network.Therefore, any GK on the whole network can translate IP address of anyendpoint on IP network according to the aliases. In this way, a callingacross zones can be implemented conveniently.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021]FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a general H.323 system with endpointsand zones in prior art.

[0022]FIG. 2 shows a diagram of an embodiment H.323 system withendpoints and zones for the invention.

[0023]FIG. 3 shows the procedure of a call that crosses to other zone.

EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0024] The invention will be described in more detail with reference tothe drawings.

[0025] The main thinking to name a endpoint with a unique alias is that:first, each endpoint in every zone is named with an E.164 number as theunique alias in domestic zone, i.e. the pre-defined E.164 number ofevery endpoint is registered to the GK that manages the endpoint; thenthe E.164 number is combined with a unique zone number of each GK zonein the network system to form the unique endpoint alias. With thisunique alias, addressing and calling across zones are implemented.

[0026] In FIG. 2, there are three GK zones, and each zone has a uniquenumber as a prefix for endpoints naming. Every GK zone prefix does notrepeat in whole IP network system. For example, the GK zone prefix ofZone 1 is 0755, the GK zone prefix of Zone 2 is 010, and the GK zoneprefix of Zone 3 is 021.

[0027] In a GK zone, E.164 numbers of all endpoints in that zone do notrepeat, but in different zones E.164 numbers of endpoints may beidentical, for example, there are identical E.164 numbers 123456, 123123and 123789 in Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3.

[0028] In the invention, each endpoint alias in every GK zone isconsisted of “GK zone prefix”+“E.164 number of the endpoint”. Forexample, three endpoints aliases in Zone 1 are: 0755123456, 0755123123and 0755123789; three endpoints aliases in Zone 2 are: 010123456,010123123 and 010123789; and three endpoints aliases in Zone 3 are:021123456, 021123123 and 021123789. With this naming method, everyendpoint alias on the whole network is unique.

[0029] Because every endpoint alias is pre-defined by GK, the registermust be made according to appointed alias. It guarantees uniqueness ofendpoint alias.

[0030] The invention has solved the problem about uniqueness of anendpoint alias, so a technical base for implementing calling acrosszones is set up.

[0031] Refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 2; suppose Endpoint A with alias0755123456 originates a calling to Endpoint B with alias 010123123, thecalling procedure is as follow.

[0032] Step 1, Endpoint A (0755123456) sends ARQ (Admission Request)signaling to GK1;

[0033] Step 2, GK1 extracts the prefix 010 of the called endpoint aliasfrom the received ARQ signaling and knows that the called Endpoint B islocated at the GK2 zone according to the extracted prefix (i.e. GK1obtains IP address of the called GK2); and then GK1 sends a LRQ(Location Request) signaling with the called endpoint alias 010123123 toGK2 to ask for translating IP address of Endpoint B;

[0034] Step 3, after having received the LRQ signaling, GK2 translatesthe IP address of Endpoint B according to the called endpoint alias010123123, and responses a LCF (Location Confirmation) signaling withthe IP address of Endpoint B to GK1;

[0035] Step 4, after having received the LCF signaling, GK1 responses aACF (Admission Confirm) signaling with the IP address of Endpoint B toEndpoint A;

[0036] Step 5, according to the IP address of Endpoint B, Endpoint Asends a Q.931 calling setup signaling to Endpoint B to initiate a call;

[0037] Step 6, the procedure enters the call proceeding.

[0038] The invention uses an identical naming method for all endpointsaliases in an IP network system by E.164 aliases. In this way,implementation of an endpoint addressing and calling that crosses zonesis simplified and convenient. Tests have shown that the method isfeasible and reliable.

1. A calling method for endpoint across zones in IP network system,comprising: A. pre-registering an E.164 alias of every endpoint of eachgatekeeper (GK) to its own GK in IP network system, wherein the E.164alias being consisted of a unique zone prefix in the IP network systemand a unique number of said endpoint in its own GK; B. a callingendpoint directly calling a called endpoint by using E.164 alias of thecalled endpoint:
 2. The calling method according to claim 1, whereinstep B further comprising: a. a GK of said calling endpoint havingreceived an ARQ (Admission Request) signaling from said callingendpoint; b. the GK of said calling endpoint extracting a prefix fromthe E.164 alias of the called endpoint and searching an IP address of aGK of said called endpoint that corresponds to the prefix, and thenaccording to the IP address, sending a LQR signaling to the GK of saidcalled endpoint to ask for translating IP address of the calledendpoint; c. the GK of said called endpoint translating IP address ofthe called endpoint according to E.164 alias of the called endpoint andresponding to the GK of said calling endpoint by a LCF signaling; d. theGK of said calling endpoint informing said calling endpoint about IPaddress of said called endpoint by an ACF signaling; f. the callingendpoint sending a Q.931 calling setup signaling to said called endpointaccording to the IP address of said called endpoint, and initiating acall.